International media gathered round an unassuming green door on Barking Road this morning - the site of police raids connected to the London Bridge terror attack.

Yesterday at 2pm, armed police closed the street and stormed a flat over Paddy Power bookies.

One man, who did not wished to be named, said: “The police came and locked our door, they said “go on, do in, don’t come out. It was too scary.”

He said there were around five customers in his small shop at the time: “People were screaming and shouting. Nobody was allowed outside.”

The business owner added that there were kept there for a number of hours: “We shut the shop completely.”

Suhelb, a 16-year-old student at Newham College, lives near the site of the raids and witnessed them as he visited the chicken shop next door to the flats: “I was in Sam’s and heard a lot of screaming. I heard “terrorist! Terrorist!” and saw a guy out on the ledge.”

The teenager said he ran over the other side of Barking Road, near Newham Town Hall, and and continued to watch the scene unfold: “The police came with guns and everything. The guy was on the ledge with a knife and a bag. Police said “get back, get back!”

“I was scared because I saw the guy with a knife. The whole road, everyone was running for their lives.”

Referring to the attack on Saturday night that sparked the raids, he said: “What happened at London Bridge was crazy - East Ham was shocked.”

Youssoupha Gueye, who lived in the block of flats said that one of the arrested men had lived there for a year and two months.

Accounts vary as to whether people were taken into custody, but several witnesses said they saw a man climb out of the flat’s window onto a ledge above the street, and people led away in handcuffs.

This morning saw further raids in East Ham and Dagenham. It’s believed that shots were fired in the 4am swoop on Caledon Road.